David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I acknowledge that there has been a reduction in the number of long waiters, which is important, but the Minister will accept that the overall waiting lists are still too high. For some time, I have called for the National Treatment Purchase Fund, NTPF, to publish all waiting lists. Currently, it only publishes acute hospital waiting lists. For transparency purposes, it would be better if community, diagnostic, mental health, children's disability network team and other specialised waiting lists were published so that we could capture what was happening.

I welcome the new public-only hospital consultant contract, which will play an important part in making consultants more available in our hospitals, particularly at weekends and after 6 p.m. on weekdays. I hope that it will result in more consultants joining the system. Selling the contract and, in so doing, attracting more consultants into the public system must be a priority for us all.

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